opinionfandomcom-20200213-history
Zebras Could Cause Problem For NFL
by Jaxhawk Is Poor Officiating Tolerated BY NFL? http://bp3.blogger.com/_sHBfjVGSFJA/R1azhr-lNCI/AAAAAAAAB68/D8ZG4GnTgLc/s1600-h/bill-carollo-002.jpg http://bp0.blogger.com/_sHBfjVGSFJA/R1XjlL-lNBI/AAAAAAAAB60/jEiOQ8ASU0Y/s1600-h/bears.jpg http://bp1.blogger.com/_sHBfjVGSFJA/R1Xjkb-lM_I/AAAAAAAAB6k/3Nlu6JjPgSw/s1600-h/brady.jpg http://bp3.blogger.com/_sHBfjVGSFJA/R1Xjk7-lNAI/AAAAAAAAB6s/t21vVBrriVU/s1600-h/stadium.jpg In September of 1920, 14 team representatives met in Akron, Ohio to create a new football league. In the interest of ticket sales and crowning a yearly champion, they decided to form the American Professional Football Association. On October 17, 1920, the Decatur Staleys( who became the Bears) played their first NFL game.Their coach was George Hallas, who changed the name to Bears when he bought the team for $100.00 in 1922. The owners adopted the name National Football League also in 1922. The league currently consists of 32 teams. The first Commissioner, Elmer Layden, was appointed in 1941. He was a member of the legendary "Four Horsemen" of Notre Dame's 1925 football team. Layden left Notre Dame in February of 1941 to become Commissioner of the NFL, a post that had been renamed upon him taking the job. Prior heads of the league had been referred to as presidents. In five years as Commissioner, Layden struggled with less skilled players due to many "stars" being drafted during WWII. The NFL muddled through for years as a small group of 10 teams with small attendance and no television contracts. When Pete Rozelle was appointed Commissioner, in 1960, after more than 23 ballots by the owners, the NFL .was still struggling financially. The election of Pete Rozelle as Commissioner turned out to be a fortuitous event for the NFL. When he took office there were ten teams in the NFL playing a twelve game schedule to frequently half-empty stadiums, and only several teams had television contracts. By the time of Rozelle's resignation, the number of teams had grown to 28 and team owners presided over sizable revenues from U.S. broadcasting networks. The NFL in 1960 was following a business model that had evolved from the 1930's. Mr.Roselle negotiated television contracts for all NFL games, and persuaded the owners of the large City teams to share TV revenues with smaller city owners. In doing so, Rozelle not only cleverly played one television network against the other, but also persuaded NFL team owners of the Baltimore Colts, and the Washington Redskins to agree to share revenues between teams of smaller cities like Green Bay, as the competing AFL had done since its inception. His business model was essentially a "cartel" that benefited all teams equally, from revenue sharing to the player draft. This money has not only changed the wealth of the owners of NFL teams and the players. It has made the NFL organisation a major influence in the game itself. The reason for this is the dramatic and exorbitant amount of money the NFL receives for the television rights to it's games. Beginning in 1962 when CBS paid the NFL 4.65 million dollars for the contract to televise all regular season games. The revenue has exploded to a total of 3.735 billion dollars paid by the networks involved in televising NFL games in 2007. The NFL's status as a prime offering that makes billions in advertising for the networks has led some to conclude that unbiased coverage of the league is not possible. ESPN attempted to run a dramatic series showing steamier aspects of pro football, "Playmakers", but dropped the series after the league reportedly threatened to exclude the network from carrying its games under the next set of TV contracts. The NFL also has a strict policy prohibiting networks to run ads during official NFL programming (pre and post-game studio shows and the games themselves) from the gambling industry, and has rejected some ads from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Commissioner Roger Goodell explained in 2007 that he did not think it behooved the sport to associate with sports betting. Additionally, the networks and their announcers cannot discuss or run graphics showing point spreads during NFL shows. They do allow Fantasy Football, however. Despite all the above it is my opinion that either the NFL has some incompetent Referees, Linesmen and Umpires, or they have a potential scandal brewing over the Officials involvement in determining the outcome of games. This could be the Achilles Heal of the NFL. The Coaches, game announcers and players are forbidden from commenting negatively about the officiating of games. Those coaches who do are severely fined. Those announcers who express criticism of the officiating seem to do it in a way that lends one to believe they are incompetent or did not see what happened. The Commissioner routinely fines players for their infractions on and off the field, and these fines and suspensions are made known to the Media. But the league goes merrily along through the years without publicly chastising any official for actions on the field of play. Scandals involving officials have surfaced in other major and collegiate sports. Why not the NFL? We all see games each Sunday that have obvious missed calls, or phantom calls for holding or interference. But the final four minutes of the Game between the Patriots and Ravens was the worst I have seen in over 40 years of watching NFL games on TV. The Patriots have to be the luckiest team in the NFL or the officials gave them the game! I am neither a Raven fan nor a Patriot hater! The Ravens won every category of statistic in that game but the score. The last four calls by the officials in the final minutes determined the eventual winner, New England Patriots. There were two calls on 4th down plays, a 3rd on a pass interference call. The additional down, after Brady failed to score on a quarterback sneak, in the final minute due to a phantom time out was the topper. The winning drive in the final minutes covered 73 yards and required two fourth-down conversions, one on a defensive holding penalty, on a pass play where the ball thrown was incapable of being caught, 6 seconds before Gaffney beat Dawan Landry in the left corner of the end zone. Is the problem with officiating caused by people who are unproficient? The officials make from $25,000 to $70,000 per season depending on seniority. For a part time job that ain't bad, so they should be able to find 119 men/women who could call the game correctly. Or does the league tolerate incompetence because they don't want to rock the "Money Boat"? An officiating scandal not only would rock the boat it could sink it! __NOEDITSECTION__ Category: Opinions Category: Opinions by User Jaxhawk Category: December 5, 2007 Category: December 2007 Category: NFL OFFICIALS MONEY Opinions From The Opinion Wiki, a Wikia wiki. From The Opinion Wiki, a Wikia wiki.